Dumbest things

Ok, so we’ve had threads discussing the stupidest things weve done, things we hate and things we love, now its time for the dumbest things we’ve seen in the gym. Yesterday I worked chest, shoulders and tri’s, time = 50 minutes. I saw one of our gyms regular goofy guys (goofy guys = guys that you see all the time but never seem to make any progress whatsoever, mostly because they’re goofy), and this guy was training a newbie friends of his. So apparently yesterday was chest day, because goofy took newbie through, incline, decline, flat, flat flies, pec dec and cable crosses, spotting him on almost half of every set- I took an interest and just watched them between sets. Those boys must have done 20-25 sets for their hardly massive pecs.

Oh, and I also saw this guy choose his girlfriend to spot him, and then almost get crushed by 165 lbs when he couldn't get the bar off this chest.

yesterday must have baan a bad day at gyms everywhere, ex. of one example at mine , after these two 140# kids had screemned their way thru what seemned like 10 sets of pushdowns ( swinging & elbows out ofcourse) the moved onto lying extentions, one was actually useing pretty good form but the other 140#'er was the “trainer”, well the kid gets to like 10 reps and keeps going(could have gotten 4-6 more)well the “trainer” tells him to stop then asks him " what are you trying to do, burn yourself out?" he was not kidding. god forbid the kid might " burn himself out"

I saw this the other day, and it still confuses the hell out of me why this guy was doing this, because he looked in damn good shape. He was doing flat barbell bench press, and he stuck his feet up on the bench, to make it more “strict” or difficult. However, when he did his reps, he would raise his ass in the air everytime. If the dumbass would have kept his feet on the floor, he wouldn’t have had to raise his ass. Just surprised me that someone would be foolish like that.

Where i train there is this tall skinny skinny guy who once trained with yellow dishwashing gloves. I swear everyone at the gym were pissing themselves. LOLOLOLOLOL!!!

I live in Japan and my gym has everything in the way of dumbness. Even ignoring the pneumatic/hydraulic equipment :-(, and the lack of any calf machines dumbness shines. My favorite though must be the man I call “baka-boy” (idiot boy). He was doing squats tonight. He hogs the power rack for an hour getting up to the huge weight of 100kg. The safety bars are set 10 inches below shoulder height and he never gets that low. As he squats his full 6 or so inches his head tilts back until he is looking straight up at the ceiling. He also wears hiw eight belt for everything …including his lower back work!!! this man truly deserves the body he has.

Ahhhh…venting, it’s got to be good for you :slight_smile:

I’m a member of an important chain of fitness center in Montreal. I train close to my work on weekdays to avoid the fucking traffic, and weekends closer to my house. The gym close to work is filled with the dumbest dumbasses I ever saw. There is only 1 regular with a nice shape and nice form. All the others are pathetic forever plateaued geeks. I will begin with my favorite, Mr. Look-How-Strong-I Am.

This guy is your regular skinny-fat, about 5'9" and 160 lbs, 11 inches arm. He is always doing the same exercises, barbell biceps curl, with the most horrible form there is (but he can put 45's on an EZ bar). He is swinging the bar like it's unbelievable and the angle of his lower arm and upper arm doesn't change during the set. The other exercise he likes is the Hammer Strength decline bench press were he can do 6 inches deep with about 265 lbs. I don't need to tell you he looks like shit and doesn't improve. But a month ago, he almost killed himself. I was doing a set of incline flys and his friend (another no-clue but with a much stronger built) was besides me incline pressing 235 lbs with, obviously, pretty bad form, 4 inches deep. So my Mr. Strong looks at him and wants to try that lift, cuz he's so fucking stronger than the rest of us. I wanted to warn him and beg him not to attempt the lift, but I decided to shut up and watch. The bar fell on him like a ton of brick, and he learned the hard way that free weights are a *bit* different that machines! The other dude had to deadlift the bar by himself. He should also change deodorant since his actual brand seems to irritate his armpits too much. I will talk about the other misfits in a future post.

The other day this guy thougth I was too close to the dumbell rack so he threw his weights at my feet while I was shrugging.
Dick

One of my coworkers (who also happens to be a neighbor) saw me finishing up a run last week. I was catching my breath in front of my apartment, walking a bit to cool down, and he waved at me. I waved back, said “Hi” and went about my business.

A few days later at work he came up to me and we got to talking about strength and fitness in general. He had some general supplement questions, and I tried to answer them as best I could. He said that he had taken creatine in the past but that he had gained nothing but water weight and felt bloated. Plus, according to him, “It’ll damage your kidneys”. I asked him about his lifting routine and got a blank stare. He then told me that he had a home gym setup with free weights (good start). I asked him about squats, and he said, rather increduly, “I’ve never squatted in my life.” That explains the chicken legs. This guy went on to tell me about his upcoming “bulking phase”. Seems that he’s going back on the creatine (apparently despite the fact that it’s going to damage his kidneys-ha!). I asked him about caloric intake, lifting protocols, etc. , and this guy was CLUELESS! He didn’t know ANYTHING about macronutrient ratios, he knew nothing about how to eat for size, nor did he plan to do any traditional size-building lifts (heavy squats, deadlifts, etc.)

I would have loved to sit down with this guy for a few hours and get him up to speed on the basics of training and diet, but sadly he wanted no part of what I had to say. I wanted to rip my pants off right there and say “But look man, I HAVE QUADS AND YOU DON’T!” Then again, my boss would have probably frowned on me dropping trou at work.

I’ll keep in touch with this guy and, if he doesn’t drop dead from kidney failure, when he’s done with his “bulking phase” I’ll try again to get him to listen. God, years ago I would have LOVED for someone to make available to me what I could have told him. And when I finally did find someone to teach me, I LISTENED and LEARNED. Frustrating, man.

Yeah Big Chief, that was me. I just didn’t think anybody could possibly do shrugs with 25 pound dumbbells for six reps with such glorious form. I shouldn’t be surprised that you could carry such a petty grudge with you. Your story about the whole leg press incident was a true testament to your character. If you want to flame me, have a discussion, whatever, just start a new thread, as it would be discourteous to take such a good thread as this one off-topic.

He He I’m just playin Styles - I’m not out to flame anyone I just dont like being called a Dick. Dude, you dont even know me. I may be a very nice guy, with good morals and character.

Okay, I’m not saying that this is in any way the case here, just a for instance… If some one is doing shrugs with 25 lb., maybe it’s because, with all the chips they’re carrying around on their shoulders, that’s all they can lift. LMAO!! Some times I just amuse myself… Okay, break time’s over! Back on your heads!

This is perhaps my biggest pet peeve at the gym. Where I lift the only place you can do pull-ups is the bar above the cable-cross machine, and it is constantly being used by fat chicks or complete fucking idiots who strap their legs to the bottom hook up to do “cable leg crossovers” with the lightest weight on there, no doubt to burn off the inner thigh fat, arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

You bring up a good point, Big Chief, I made a snap judgement about you because of your post. I don’t doubt that you could be a good person, hell, you probably are. However, since I only had that one post to judge you on, I don’t think calling you a dick was out of the question. Frankly, what you did, or what you said you did, really pissed me off. The fact that you appeared proud of your display of immaturity by your words on the post further pissed me off. I’m not going to lecture you on how to be polite in the gym, because heaven knows I’ve done some shit in my life to prove that I am not a model citizen. I’m only going to ask that you admit you were a dick in that situation. In turn, I will admit that I was a dick in the way I responded. Cool?

The dumbest thing I saw was this guy Whopper who just tonight was in his basement doing his back. As a finisher he decided to do reverse grip pulldowns. Unfortunatly he is tall, so he wedges his knees into the leg extention part of his exercise station and does his pulldowns facing the machine. Tonight he got stuck when he failed on the last rep…his knees were wedged into the machine, and he didnt want to just let the bar go…because it was about a one foot drop for the weights to fall, and he didnt want to damage his precious Bodysolid station machine. So he ended up stuck there for a good two minutes before he had the strength to pull the bar down enough for him to wiggle his knees out from the leg extention part. What a DOPE!

I actually work at a gym, and the ignorance I see is just blatently rampant. Can anybody identify with people who do half-preacher curls with 45s on the bar, or women who buy myoplex LITE, because the don’t want to be bulky? I got news for ya chick! you are already bulky. How about those who do sit ups EVERY day in hopes of glass etched abs, or those who pile the weight on the decline bench, and look aound as if anyone cared how much you can DECLINE. What about those that do “Full Body” sitting rows if you know what I mean… Not to mention those who clog the toilets with their shit. I HAVE TO CLEAN THOSE YOU BASTARDS!!!

James, I have the same situation at my gym. And that’s why I feel bad when I do those leg crossovers, than you Ian King and your 12 weeks of pain!

Styles, I realize I sounded like a dick when I posted that message about the fat chick - I guess I did come across as a dick. I try and be polite in the gym and always ask people if they want to work in. No hard feelings dude. Now be nice to me, it’s my 28th birthday and I spotted another gray hair this morning!

Well just today I had the pleasure of watching my two favorite Super Strong Guys with their unique approach to lifting. They put 315 on the smith machine and proceeded to do behind the neck presses. One would be sitting and pressing while the spotter would lift up the weight. But actually that is what they usually do. On the second set the spotter actuall sat in front of the presser and helped press. It was kind of a silly sight watching to people pressing the same weight and both working just as hard at it. Then they went to a preacher curl machine and started doing one arm curls but the funny part is they grabbed their wrists with their free hand to help up the weight starting with rep one. AHHHHHHHHHHHH why is it so irriating to see idiots in the gym?

I think one of the funniest things that happens in every gym in the U.S. is when these fucking ex high school football players who haven’t worked out in 2 or 3 years come in. Usually they have all kinds of stories about how bad-ass they used to be in high school and about how good creatine + protein worked for them. Oftentimes they’ll be wearing these old ratted out t-shirts their football coach from 5 years ago gave them that say something like “250 lb bench press club”. (know the type yet??) Every single exercise they do is done with the most atrocious bullshit form you’ve ever seen, but from the sounds of them you’d think they’d be Mr. Olympia. Last night there was 3 guys like this in my gym doing squats. Not a single one of them could even squat 135 lbs with decent form but they kept putting weight on the bar until they got to like 275 and by then they were yelling and straining like crazy while doing about 1/8th of a squat (no kidding). Every time a group of them come in I always place wagers with friends on how long they’ll last…usually it’s less then a month.

We have one guy at our gym that is the strangest looking guy I have ever seen. Not only does he have imaginary lat disease, but he also has straight, same length, bleach-blonde hair cut off below his ears. I don’t know if this guy uses gear or not, because despite the horrible acne on his back he has toothpic arms and a gut. He wears all the clothes REAL bodybuilders wear, you know, tank tops in bright eighties colors with either spandex pants or balloon pants and ALWAYS with a lifting belt. The only thing funnier that I saw was when he was instructing a 17 year old girl that works at the front desk, how to get in shape. She actually listened and then told me later, wow, he knows a lot. I had to walk away to keep from laughing.